Social Listening - Ghost Ship Games

    The brand I've picked today is the Danish game developer, Ghost Ship Games. What interested me in their product was their continued success with their game, Deep Rock Galactic, a game that I've enjoyed, and expansion into board games and publishing. I've relatively only ever heard them spoken about in a positive manner, due to their amazing community management and listening.

I was also inspired by the previous student example on Stardew Valley, which helped me make my final choice.

Their values are very impressive, using their publishing page for my example, they state "We believe in fair deals, equal partnerships, full transparency, and consumer-friendly business models. If people are happy to buy your game, you know you are on the right track. We believe game development is at its best when the developers and fans get to share the passion for the project. "

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    Three specific things people are saying about Ghost Ship Games and Deep Rock Galactic are that they love that they listen to the community. It isn't a super hard thing to do when you have one as big as they do, and any little significant actions can show care to a lot of people. They had absolutely no need to respond or acknowledge this, but a silly little response and fix shows a lot of love and care for their silly dwarf game.

My second comment is regarding a collaboration with a rock band they did, where they made an original song. They lean into their community jokes enough to where it still stays organic and funny with their whole "Rock and Stone!" cheer. It also sings some other praises for their communication on current issues and rapid responses to them.

    My third one here goes a little bit further back to their new season release trailer, with the highest comment praising them for all the work they're continuing to do years later and how they manage older cosmetics being obtainable for newer players, which is a rough issue lots of games tend to not be able to figure out how to solve without upset or difficulty.

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    A lot of aspects I've already mentioned earlier relate heavily to their marketing efforts, and they lean heavily into being a co-op game first, rather than making it a bullet point as most other games would. They've fostered a caring community around their game that will just about give them money for anything. 

    One of the first things a player hears joining a multiplayer game is the game playing a voice line about other players in the lobby being glad that you're joining their team, and the entirety of the game's communication can be done through a little laser pointer, making it really accessible for people with anxiety or disability. It also features a variety of player-chosen difficulty settings, meaning anyone can find or make a lobby at their skill level.

    The main point of this effort is it keeps players talking about the game and keeps introducing new users to the game. With the game being co-op, it's a really easy sell for someone to get their friends on board if they enjoy playing it, leading to that person then talking about the game, and the cycle repeats. I'd argue I'm part of this evidence as I've bought friends or convinced at least four friends to buy the game, and it's how I learned about the game.

    They further incentivize a sense of community with their "Interplanetary Miner's Union", a recurring event on their discord server players can freely join for extra goodies in-game, and to meet new users to interact and play with.

    Being live service they're able to keep customers engaged in the game and community and always give them a reason to hop back on and see what the new things are, whether it be a seasonal event or an entirely new mission and environment type.

    A challenge I believe they may face as every other game company may face is a lack of player time and too many options to consider. Lots of games are looking to hook in as many people as possible as long as possible, but I believe they've fostered enough of a loyal community here for it not to be an issue anymore.

    The second challenge I can imagine would be keeping up with updating the game in a timely manner, but with reruns of seasonal events adding new items each year, I don't think it's too much of an issue and keep attention long enough while they develop a new season.

    Their amazing responses to fans and customers are absolutely a factor in player retention. They love to share what their fans are making and respond to every type of post they can. I personally think they are a masterclass in how to engage with your community, and a lot can be learned from them.

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     Ghost Ship Games very much benefits from being a smaller studio of around 40 people. They put the customers first and have a blast interacting with their community. They very much go the extra mile to show they care about what they do and love to show off what's going on behind the scenes. Whenever they respond, even to the slight negative feedback I've been able to find, they take it on the chest, do what they can to fix it, and move forward.

(though a bit dated, still reinforces my point)

    I've tried to think about what I could do better if I were their brand manager, but I'm not able to come up with a ton. As I've stated before I genuinely believe they've nailed it perfectly. Besides maybe putting out some merchandise to help spread the word of the game outside of the internet they're about as perfect as it gets.

    From this assignment, I dug deeper into a game I already love and came out with more appreciation for it. I've looked deeper and learned exactly how they've "made it" by putting a lot of passion and care into their product and showing off things just to show them off. It shows word of mouth is still a very valid way to make sales, and fostering a community well will help them spread the word. They've continued to grow coming up on their 6th year with this game, and I look forward to seeing what they do next.